My Chevy Bolt Is on Third Battery Pack: Here’s Why

insideevs.com

I wonder if the use of pouch cells may in the end turn out to be the wrong choice. Isn't it strange that all incumbent manufactures use those while a good chunk of startups + Tesla went with cylindrical?

And to think energy storage as a core competency for EV manufacturing might be important /s

The incumbent manufacturers have begun approaching Tesla ranges using traditional pouch-cell batteries, while Tesla range hasn't significantly improved over that time, so the jury's out on which was the better long-term choice.

Also, Panasonic manufactures most of these battery cells anyway (including Tesla's). Tesla uses those cells to construct the battery pack. The incumbents generally farm battery pack construction out to Panasonic or other specialized battery makers.

This entire issue could have been solved with better balancing circuitry.

If a single cell out of hundreds is bad, the circuitry should be able to wait till that cell is depleted, and then temporarily (or even permanently!) take it out of the circuit, allowing the remaining capacity in the other cells to be used.

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